Winchester's most popular books of 2018

Monday

Dec 31, 2018 at 3:18 PMDec 31, 2018 at 3:18 PM

The Winchester Public Library crunched the numbers and compiled the list of the most checked out books by Winchester's adult readers in 2018. Although the search drew on titles of both fiction and non-fiction categories, the top 10 list is comprised of nine novels and one cookbook.

Winchester’s 10 most popular books of 2018:

1. "The Great Alone" by Kristin HannahLenora Allbright is 13 when her Vietnam vet father, Ernt, convinces the family to move to Alaska. The harsh conditions bring out the worst in Ernt, whose paranoia takes over their lives and the Allbrights must endure unimaginable hardship and tragedy as the wilderness tries to claim more victims.

2. "Smitten kitchen every day: triumphant and unfussy new favorites" by Deb Perelman Full of gorgeously photographed, accessible recipes, Deb Perelman’s latest cookbook will be hard to resist. Includes recipes for Crispy Tofu and Broccoli with Sesame-Peanut Pesto, Wild Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie, and Jam-Bellied scones.

3. "Little fires everywhere" by Celeste NgA riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter move to town and upend their lives in this tightly ordered Cleveland suburb.

4. "A gentleman in Moscow" by Amor TowlesIn 1922, Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentences to house arrest in a grant hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

5. "The woman in the window" by A. J. FinnFor readers of Gilian Flynn and Tana French comes one of the decade’s most anticipated debuts: a twisty, powerful Hitchcockian thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she witnessed a crime in a neighboring house. What is real? What is imagined? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one -- and nothing -- is what it seems.

6. "Manhattan Beach" by Jennifer EganManhattan Beach takes us into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and nion men in a dazzling, propulsive exploration of a transformative moment in the lives and identities of women and men of America and the world.

7. The Rooster Bar by John GrishamMark, Todd, and Zola are third-year law students who realize they have been duped, borrowing heavily to attend a third-tier for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam. But maybe there is a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the scam, and make a few bucks in the process.

8. Before we were yours by Lisa WingateBased on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals -- in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country -- Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale remind us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.

9. The flight attendant by Chris Bohjalian A powerful story about the ways an entire life can change in one night: A flight attendant wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man -- and no idea what happened.

10. The story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg Arthur Moses comes the cemetery every day to visit his wife’s grave. There, he encounters Maddy Harris, an introspective girl who is trying to escape the other kids at school. One afternoon she joins Arthur -- a gesture that begins a surprising friendship between two lonely souls. Along with Arthur’s neighbor Lucille, the unlikely trio band together and, through heartache and hardships, help one another rediscover their own potential to start anew.

The descriptions of the book titles were provided by Winchester Public Library.

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Winchester, you sure did read a lot this year! The top 10 books borrowed in 2018 are listed here. How many did you read? #bookgroup #librariesofinstagram #winchesterma #winchester #winpublib #readeveryday #bookrecommendations #2018 #happynewyear

A post shared by Winchester Public Library (@winpublib) on Dec 31, 2018 at 10:36am PST